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INDIANAPOLIS – This feels different from 2014. The Indianapolis Colts are different than they were four years ago, better than they were, when they reached the 2014 AFC championship game and then everything fell apart.

Main reason I’m saying that? This team won’t be falling apart after this season ends, whenever that is, whether it’s Saturday in Kansas City or the following week in another AFC city or on Feb. 3 at Atlanta, site of Super Bowl 53, a preposterous ending to a sentence about a season that started 1-5. Turns out, even at 1-5, the Colts weren’t bumbling. They were building.

Those 2014 Colts, they weren’t building anything. They were winging it, a playoff team thanks to the preposterous talent and intangibles of Andrew Luck, a quarterback so good he led a roster that bad to the cusp of the Super Bowl. How bad, bad being a relative term, were those 2014 Colts? If they weren’t winning, if Luck wasn’t using smoke and mirrors and the magic of his right arm to guide the Colts to victory, they were being blown completely out. The 2014 Colts’ final four losses of 2014 were by 17 points ... then 22 ... then 35 ... then 38. Good thing they didn’t have one more game to play. Might have lost by half-a-hundred.

And with that, we conclude the “hey everyone, let’s bash the 2014 Colts” phase of this discussion. Well, for now. Pretty sure this party has one more bash. Still reading? Good. Still writing. We’ll see where we go from here …

Hey, I know: Let’s go to back to Houston for a moment, back to where the Colts won their first playoff game in four years on Saturday by doing to the Texans what fully formed NFL playoff teams, mature and deep and well coached, once did to the 2014 Colts: They dominated the Texans, dominated them physically and even mentally, starting with T.Y. Hilton and that clown mask and then with Frank Reich rubbing Hilton in the Texans’ face on the first series of the game by throwing it to him, throwing it to him, throwing it to him. Reich used Hilton against Houston the way the New England Patriots once used 245-pound running back LeGarrette Blount against the Colts, as an instrument of intimidation, and it worked. A furious three-touchdown flurry led to a comfortable 21-7 victory.

And now let’s go forward, beyond this game in Kansas City, because whatever happens Saturday in Arrowhead Stadium won’t be a referendum on the Colts’ future. It will be another mile marker on this road the Colts are traveling, one that figures to pass through Kansas City – with the Chiefs sure to pass this way, as well – several times in the coming years. The Chiefs have young talent all over their roster, which Colts general manager Chris Ballard had a hand in building before coming to Indianapolis after the 2016 season. Patrick Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns this season. He’s 23. Tyreek Hill caught 87 passes for 1,479 yards. He’s 24. Chris Jones, with his 15½ sacks? He’s 24. Dee Ford, with his 13 sacks? He’s 27. Starting cornerbacks Steven Nelson and Kendall Fuller? They’re 25 and 23. No, these Chiefs aren’t going anywhere.

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) reaches over the goal line for a touchdown as Houston Texans free safety Tyrann Mathieu (32) attempts to stop him in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) celebrates his touchdown in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore (23) and his teammates celebrate his interception in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore (23) and his teammates celebrate his interception in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) fights to control the ball but fails to come up with this touchdown catch during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) fights to control the ball but fails to come up with this touchdown catch during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts strong safety Mike Mitchell (34) is helped off the field following an injury during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Houston Texans 21-7 Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) cradles the football like a baby following his touchdown during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Ebron became a father for the second time earlier in the week. The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Houston Texans 21-7 Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Neither are these Colts, which is why this season feels so different from 2014. Yes, right here we’re aided by hindsight. We know what happened after that 2014 AFC title game, two 8-8 seasons followed by the nadir of 4-12 in 2017. But let’s not forget what we knew in 2014, in real time, even as the Colts were going 11-5 and somehow winning two playoff games: We weren’t sold on a general manager working two pay grades above his skill level, or on a coach we loved as a man but didn’t much respect on the sideline. If you were here in 2014, you remember wondering, even as the Colts were winning, who’d get fired first someday: Ryan Grigson or Chuck Pagano?

Here’s what we’re wondering about the second-year GM, Ballard, and the coach he hired, Reich: Which guy gets a big individual award first? For what the Colts have done this season, Ballard could be NFL executive of the year. Same for Reich and coach of the year. It’s possible neither will win because there is much competition, and because those things are arbitrary and debatable. But the talent and skill of Ballard and Reich, their ability to work together, are not. Off the field, the Colts are good to go for years to come.

On the field, same thing.

Unlike those 2014 Colts, an aging group with holes up and down its roster – quick, name that team’s best running back or its best defensive lineman or its best linebacker … or heck, name any linebacker – this team has young talent all over the place. That 2014 roster was such a problem that Grigson threw money at it after that 45-7 loss to the Patriots, a spending spree that saw the Colts bring in running back Frank Gore (age 32) and receiver Andre Johnson (34) and defensive end Trent Cole (33). And offensive guard Todd Herremans (33).

It was astonishing, watching the Colts after that 2014 season. They weren’t spackling holes. They were knocking down walls and gutting the plumbing. They were replacing the roof. That house was falling apart, and it did. Years of neglect on the offensive line led to a historic battering for Luck, lacerating his kidney and shredding his shoulder and setting in motion this franchise’s fall from the 2014 AFC title game to the No. 6 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft …

… which the Colts used to take Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson.

And in the second round, they drafted South Carolina State linebacker Darius Leonard.

Both made All-Pro this season, the first pair of rookie teammates to do that since, ahem, Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears in 1965. In Nelson and Leonard the Colts have building blocks on each side of the ball, and those two aren’t alone. In the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Colts took an offensive lineman from Auburn, a player named ….

“Braden Smith is guy everyone’s sleeping on,” veteran left tackle Anthony Castonzo was telling me after the win in Houston. “People have no idea how good that guy is. Watch the film. He was matched up with one of the best guys in the league (Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt). Seriously, watch the film. You’ll be impressed.”

All over this roster, there are players – young players, under contract for years to come – who jump out on film. Linebacker Anthony Walker (age 23) and cornerback Kenny Moore II (23). Safeties Clayton Geathers (26) and Malik Hooker (22). Same for defensive end Tyquan Lewis (23), though he missed the Houston game with a knee injury. The Colts plugged in Kemoko Turay (23), who spent his time in Houston visiting the Texans’ backfield.

Suddenly – and this does seem awfully sudden, doesn’t it? – the Colts have a defense worthy of an offense led by Luck, its franchise quarterback, and receiver T.Y. Hilton (29) and Pro Bowl tight end Eric Ebron (25). Oh, and running back Marlon Mack (22), who set a Colts franchise record on Saturday with 148 rushing yards, giving him 1,056 yards and 10 touchdowns in 13 games this season. Plus Nelson (22) and Smith (22) and an offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks (18) in the NFL this season. Oldest player on that line: Castonzo (30). Center Ryan Kelly is 25. The guard opposite the nasty Nelson, Mark Glowinski, is pretty nasty himself. And just 26.

Look at these 2018 Colts. Look how far they’ve come, and imagine how much farther they still can go. The future is awfully bright here in Indianapolis, even if the future might also be right now.